“A load of tosh”: Cyclists’ reaction as latest person ordered to pay eye-watering fine for riding bicycle through town centre; Tory candidate’s questionable LTN claim; Remco cools criticism of ex-teammate; Froome crash update + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Tory mayoral candidate claims LTNs are "blocking ambulances" despite support for schemes... from the emergency services
Last week, the latest polling for the London mayoral election in May had Conservative Party candidate Susan Hall 25 points behind Sadiq Khan. Hall’s campaign will, by many, be remembered for her pre-Christmas claim that her wallet being stolen on the tube was evidence of lawless London, only for it to be returned by a Good Samaritan because she’d in fact “dropped it” — however, with the big day less than two months away, the Tory candidate has ramped up her campaigning, posting a video on social media claiming that “LTNs [low-traffic neighbourhood schemes that prevent drivers rat-running certain roads in residential areas, in a bid to encourage active travel and tackle air and noise pollution] are blocking ambulances”.
To make her point, Hall spoke to one emergency services worker…
LTNs (low traffic neighbourhoods) are blocking ambulances from getting to where they need to be.
I am listening to Londoners and will do all I can to help councils remove unwanted LTNs. Tell me if there’s an LTN you want removed 👇https://t.co/48gzfeSLwI pic.twitter.com/towbJZbGIH
— Susan Hall AM (@Councillorsuzie) March 5, 2024
As the ambulance attendant, Hazel, tells her: “They’re not helping at all, get rid of them. Just simply get rid of them.” The Ranty Highwayman, an account run by a highway engineer, asked Hall if Hazel’s “speaking on behalf of the NHS, the London Ambulance Service, a transport contractor or herself. This is an important point that needs answering.”
An important point indeed, especially considering some of the official emergency service communication about LTNs…
In 2021, the London Fire Brigade said low-traffic neighbourhoods have had no impact on response times. LFB said: “LTNs have been part of London’s transport strategy since the 1970s. LTNs help to make streets around London easier to walk and cycle on by stopping cars, vans and other vehicles from using quiet roads as shortcuts.
“We haven’t yet noticed any impact on our attendance times due to the LTN schemes established in 2020; however, we will continue to monitor their impact at a local level.”
And while one year’s data does not necessarily reflect long-term trends, particularly in a year after the coronavirus pandemic caused such disruption to peoples lives and routines. However, looking a little further back, Waltham Forest – which has created a number of LTNs in recent years under its Mini Holland programme, saw average response times fall from 5 minutes 2 seconds in 2018 to 4 minutes 54 seconds in 2019 and 4 minutes 43 seconds in 2020 (again, admittedly a pandemic year).
> Pop-up bike lanes don’t slow ambulances according to… the ambulance service
Last year, police in Tower Hamlets urged the council not to scrap a Liveable Streets scheme, saying that it has resulted in a reduction in antisocial behaviour-related crime.
One Twitter (X) user who replied to Hall commented: “Here’s an ambulance driver driving straight through the filters of an LTN to swiftly get to their destination.
Note: no motor traffic backlog to hold the ambulance up and the driver did not incur a fine as emergency vehicles are exempt, as are buses.”
Here’s an ambulance driver driving straight through the filters of an LTN to swiftly get to their destination.
Note: no motor traffic backlog to hold the ambulance up and the driver did not incur a fine as emergency vehicles are exempt, as are buses. https://t.co/LqHjIEwcIM pic.twitter.com/3HAzChgEhQ— Kylie 🚲 (@netwench) March 5, 2024
Another reply — from the Hackney Cyclist account — featured a police officer speaking about LTNs, warning of “a lot of scaremongering” around the schemes…
“[We] wont’ be able to help people, we won’t be able to catch suspect, there’ll be a victim in need and we won’t be able to get there because we’ll need to do a U-turn… That’s just completely false. Please don’t believe any scaremongering.”
Hackney police: “These filters have been designed for emergency services to pass through. Don’t believe the scaremongering you see online” https://t.co/3YVJp1NVl0 pic.twitter.com/67FiuWjhQR
— Hackney Cyclist (@Hackneycyclist) March 5, 2024
Cycling lawyer at Leigh Day law firm, Rory McCarron, pointed out the response time data from Greenwich showing the biggest cause of delays to London Fire Brigade call outs was traffic, not LTNs. “What you going to do about excessive car use?” he asked.
Rubbish. pic.twitter.com/6dYqPhvv0W
— Low Traffic Highbury 💚 (@HighburyLtn) March 5, 2024
That was fun. Anyway, as we said at the start, 25 points behind in the polls…
🚨NEW BIKE KLAXON🚨Giant unveils the "lightest, most efficient TCR ever" — but is it enough for it to remain the brand's flagship road race bike?
Remco Evenepoel cools criticism of former teammate, having accused Tim Declercq of "nasty" TT blocking
[ASO/Billy Ceusters]
Soudal Quick-Step leader Remco Evenepoel wasn’t best pleased with the antics of former teammate Tim Declercq during yesterday’s Paris-Nice team time trial. Praise the lord, we don’t have to talk about helmets for five minutes…
Declercq, the mile-munching domestique who spent years laying the foundations of many a teammate’s victories with the Belgian team, has left for Lidl-Trek and attracted the ire of his former employer’s big-name GC hope. Evenepoel accused Declercq of, having been dropped from Lidl-Trek’s TTT effort, then riding in front of the Soudal Quick-Step effort behind on a technical bend.
“A thank you to him. That was really nasty. Tim may have been an ex-teammate, but you don’t do something like that. Did he do it on purpose? I hope not, but it is possible,” Remco said. However, not long after, the 24-year-old cooled off and wrote on Strava that he was “a bit overhyped” and “I don’t blame him for getting in our way […] the commissioner should have warned him so he knew we were getting closer[…] Tim didn’t make us lose the race today.”
Declercq told Het Nieuwsblad: “It was unintentional but it can happen, but I don’t see what I could do about it. In principle, that car should have said to me: they are there. Then I would have stepped aside because this is the last thing I would do. Remco should know me as a person, that I would never do something like that on purpose.”
The pair then exchanged messages under Evenepoel’s Instagram post about the day, Declercq apologising if he lost Soudal Quick-Step any time, but it “was really not on purpose”.
Right, back to stupid-looking aero helmets…
Under-fire council defends controversial survey, claims it had "heard anecdotally that there are issues with e-bike and e-scooters being ridden dangerously in the borough"
You might have seen this yesterday…
As a quick update, we contacted Tower Hamlets Council for comment, the local authority saying it had “heard anecdotally that there are issues with e-bike and e-scooters being ridden dangerously in the borough”.
“This is a fact-finding survey, not a statutory consultation, to find out more information. We welcome people from Tower Hamlets to respond to the survey.”
Introducing the Big Bike Orchestra
The Big Bike Orchestra from Bydgoszcz, Poland is a unique musical ensemble that was founded in 2012.
It consists of a group of cyclists who play various musical instruments mounted on their bikes as they ride around the city.pic.twitter.com/NX9jpOy6wf
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 6, 2024
"I'm strapped up and ready to take on the day": Chris Froome continues Tirreno-Adriatico after crash on stage two
After crashing yesterday, @chrisfroome will start @TirrenAdriatico stage 3 👇#TirrenoAdriatico 🇮🇹 #YallaIPT pic.twitter.com/fmb5dvfV0J
— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) March 6, 2024
Chris Froome can’t catch a break, the four-time Tour de France winner falling during yesterday’s stage and ending the day in hospital for an X-ray. No fractures means he’s back on the bike today. “Strapped up and ready to take on the day,” he wrote on social media.
Just the 225km on the cards, an uphill sprint likely, Gualdo Tadino the ancient town the scene of the finish. Mathieu van der Poel was the winner the last time we visited, in 2021, will the sprinters have enough punch to contest the finish after such a long day in the saddle? Perhaps this is Biniam Girmay or maybe even Julian Alaphilippe territory?
"You never should take away the character of a person, it's how I am": Remco Evenepoel comments on Declercq situation ahead of testing Paris-Nice stage
“It’s how I am. I often say what I feel inside my stomach or my heart”
Remco Evenepoel has apologised to former teammate, Tim Declerq, for his outburst after the #ParisNice team time trial 🚴♀️@friebos🎙️ pic.twitter.com/ONMGbfvxVz
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) March 6, 2024
Some final words from Remco on the Declercq incident before the start of today’s lumpy Paris-Nice stage: “You never should take away the character of a person, it’s how I am. I often say what I feel in my stomach, it’s the way I react after a race often, but I know it’s not 100 per cent what I mean. What I said is not what I regret, it’s just the way I said it.
“Tim also knows he was riding in the way, he apologised for that, we shared some messages, we spoke together, we will speak in the bunch and everything will be forgotten.”
Phil Bauhaus wins uphill sprint at Tirreno-Adriatico
🇩🇪 @PhilBauhaus takes Stage 3️⃣ ahead of 🇮🇹 @MilanJonathan_ and 🇫🇷 @kevin_vauquelin!
🔱 #TirrenoAdriatico pic.twitter.com/m6K8pDl1BV
— Tirreno Adriatico (@TirrenAdriatico) March 6, 2024
Tirreno’s third stage ended with a confusing uphill sprint, made more complex by the crash of Jasper Philipsen in the final kilometre. Few will be thanking the organisers for dropping a 225km day in the middle of a stage race in March, but decent prep for those going to Milan-San Remo next weekend, I guess…
The testing nature of the finish, after a relatively straightforward, but energy-sapping, long day in the saddle, meant the top-10 turned into a fantastically diverse mishmash of all sorts of riders, from pure sprinters to well-positioned GC hopefuls.
At the head of them all was Phil Bauhaus, the German sprinter fending of Jonathan Milan’s late surge. Alberto Bettiol flew the flag for the classics men in fourth, while Damiano Caruso represented the climbers in seventh, having helped his German sprinter to victory.
For the most hardcore racing fans among you, eagerly awaiting news from Belgium and the 1.1 Altez GP Oetingen p/b Lotto. That was won by Lorena Wiebes. We’ll have more from Paris-Nice shortly…
Police apologise as charges against cyclist accused of "riding on the wrong side of the road" while filming phone driver dropped on eve of trial
Santiago Buitrago wins Paris-Nice summit finish, as Luke Plapp moves into race lead
Remember when they changed their name to Bahrain Victorious and we all took the piss out of them because they’d barely ever won, yeah nobody’s joked about that recently. Santiago Buitrago earned the team their second WorldTour stage race victory of the past hour, with an impressive display at Paris-Nice’s Mont Brouilly hilltop finish.
🏁 🇨🇴@SantiagoBS26 s’impose au Mont Brouilly ! 🏆
🏁 🇨🇴@SantiagoBS26 wins on Mont Brouilly! 🏆#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/pjtxbHW3rF
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 6, 2024
The Colombian bridged to Luke Plapp on the first ascent of the climb and the pair stayed away, GC favourites Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič seemingly unbothered by the stage win heading off up the road. Ultimately, the Belgian did launch his attack in search of the final remaining bonus seconds, but was pipped on the line by Mattias Skjelmose.
It all means we’ve got a race on our hands heading towards the weekend, Australian Plapp taking the lead ahead of his attack companion. UAE Team Emirates duo Brandon McNulty and João Almeida remain in third and fourth respectively, while Remco sits 30 seconds off the race lead, Roglič at 1:10…
Fuel duty freeze "just tinkering around the edges" of necessary transport changes and “disproportionately” benefiting wealthiest motorists, says think tank – as campaigners slam "no mention of cycling or walking" in Budget
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"A load of tosh": Cyclists' reaction as latest person ordered to pay eye-watering fine for riding bicycle through town centre
Yesterday we reported on North East Lincolnshire Council’s news release, yep it warranted the local authority to put a full story on its website, about a cyclist being ordered to pay £500 for breaching a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO). Their crime? Cycling through the pedestrianised town centre. I know, throw away the key…
24 hours on and the story has drawn more than a bit of reaction from our readers, so much so we’re going to have a round-up of some of the highlights on this afternoon’s live blog.
Councillor Ron Shepherd, second from the left in the council’s picture below, called the latest hefty fine a “great result for our enforcement teams”.
Over on Facebook, David Kelly told us he’s local and “it’s a load of tosh”, his words not our… “They never stop the youngsters who are an actual issue,” he added. That assessment echoes the sentiment of other residents who, after an 82-year-old told the council to stick their £100 fine where the sun doesn’t shine, accused the council’s officers of targeting “old and slow” riders, while ignoring youths “racing up and down”.
The council’s line is that the enforcement work is to make Grimsby town centre a “safe environment people can enjoy”, free from anti-social behaviour.
Chrissk, another road.cc reader local to Grimsby, told us: “There is a lack of suitable bike paths around the area and instead of addressing that they get some dodgy private company in to issue fines.” We’ll leave his one-word assessment of cllr Shepherd’s work for you to find in the comments section of yesterday’s story…
However, not everyone had sympathy for the cyclists fined, BigDoodyBoy making the point that, “Guys, it’s the law. Like it or lump it, you’ve got to obey it. Whinging is not becoming. It makes you look like car drivers who are always going on about the ‘war on drivers’.
“In the same way as someone sat in a car park with their engine running but otherwise parked up is breaking the law by touching their phone, these people are breaking the law. The risks are similarly low and we can argue the merits ’til the cows come home but in both cases the driver and cyclist deserve their punishment for breaking the law.”
Pedal those squares: “There is anti-social behaviour and there are people going from A to B with consideration for others. My guess is if they enforced ‘anti-social behaviour’ correctly, everywhere would be nicer for all… it is very few people who do not give a damn about others, but sorting that out is more difficult that fining a 60+ man just plodding along.”
M4rt1n74: “I’ve no problem with a zero tolerance approach to fines for cyclists riding on pedestrian areas but I feel the level of fine is very high. You can drive a car at excess speeds and receive a lower fine, you can park a car on pavements with no issues. The fine is even higher than going through a red light! Maybe a bit of common sense should be used in both sides.”
Stuart Patterson: “I’m not particularly familiar with Grimsby, so this is based on generic experience in other towns, but I reckon it’s easier to catch a 60-year-old pootling along, that a Deliveroo rider on a de-restricted e-bike doing 15mph who ignores you when you shout ‘Stop’.”
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Latest Comments
@perce we all like a polite and courteous poster! Much as motorists like a polite and courteous cyclist doffing their helmet (possibly from a hedge they've obliging leapt into along, say, a leafy lane in Essex).
"attributed by experts", yeah sure, ok! Citing 8 year out of date per capita figures shows the weakness of your argument. Here's a couple of reasons I believe that the Netherlands fatality rate might be higher than the UK (independent of the crappy Dutch infrastructure), none of which you and Chrisonatrike suggested or mentioned: 1) not enough people wearing helmets in Netherlands. All sane people know that wearing a cycling helmet can potentially save lives, yet the Dutch seem to think themselves too special to wear one. Despite the fact the Netherlands has a superior privatised health system compared to our rotten, inefficient NHS, post-crash options are limited for people with severe head trauma which will inevitable lead to increased fatalities in the Netherlands. 2) Risk compensation by drivers and cyclists. Cyclists are lulled into a false sense of security thinking that segregated cycle lanes are their special infrastructure which insulate them from accidents. They don't. Then, car drivers take more risks due to increased congestion caused by the same cycling infrastructure, leading to a double-whammy of risky behaviour. 3) Cultural issues. People in the UK are renowned for their stiff upper lip, stoic, courteous behaviour. They naturally protect more vulnerable road users. I, myself, had a magnificent cycling experience earlier today on the local country lanes, waving and saying hello to the locals and cyclists alike. There really isn't a place like the UK (well, outside London anyway) that matches our hospitality and camaraderie. P.s. I'm not sure who Nigel is, I assumed you meant Nigel Farage but I can assure you I'm not him and that he has more pressing things to do than write responses on a cycling website. I hope that's helped your understanding a little, and enabled you to think a little independently rather than just suck in information that self-described "experts" want you to believe. Oh and Norway et Al are terrible comparators as hardly anyone lives there (and who'd want to to be honest? Lol!)
Yup. The UK has latterly tried add the safety back in after it was lost for vulnerable road users. (And after giving all the direct routes / valuable space over to motoring). But it's offering a modicum more safety in return for them losing a lot more convenience - so that has been reducing the "problem" also! Plus we lean heavily on "but people can be trusted to be reasonable" and "for any misbehaviour police it better". Unfortunately those are not good assumptions or choices for safety in a motornormative environment. (And road policing isn't a priority anyway). NL isn't the only place in Europe they've realised that mass motoring the old way is unsustainable (for lots of reasons). They're just the furthest on. In NL they still have some challenges because the (larger - thanks US!) car strikes back, and there are some questions about the impact of e-things. But they're *still* investing in improvements, and proportionally significantly more than the UK, even though they're already far ahead...
The Stockton Hub which I used occasionally (I don't live in Stockton) was open only during standard office hours, Mondays to Fridays, rendering it useless for families and leisure cyclists. It's a standard problem for a lot of government-funded or charity-run public services which close when many people most need them, presumably because staffing costs would rise substantially. The article also mentions cycle hubs in Redcar and Darlington which, so far as I can tell, have never existed.
Ho ho ho! No, we need to stop these idiotic cyclists completely (or limit them to velodromes, parks and maybe "rail trails") - that way there won't be any cyclist road fatalities! Simples! Meanwhile in many parts ofEurope they're finding the benefits of making it such that lots of people don't use cars for every journey - by fixing it so it's convenient and increasingly safe - despite much larger numbers of people getting around outside of cars than in the UK...
The fatality rate in the UK has fallen five years in a row during a period, starting with the Covid years, in which building of "idiotic Dutch roundabouts and segregated cycling infrastructure" has massively increased, so in fact using your own benchmark the statistics clearly show the benefits of increased cycling infrastructure. Not quite the gotcha you seem to think when viewed through non-troll lenses, Nige. The stupidity of your "argument" is further clearly illustrated by the fact that the list-topping Norway, Sweden and Denmark all have massive segregated cycling networks. The Dutch model used to demonstrate clearly the safer nature of the Dutch system, e.g. in 2018 the Netherlands had 8 fatalities per billion kms ridden compared to 21 in the UK; the primary reason for the increased fatality rates in the Netherlands has been attributed by experts to the massive uptake in ebikes (47% of new bikes sold in NL are now ebikes compared to 10% in the UK), particularly amongst the older population, nothing to do with the infrastructure.
It used to be great price this, but they played the ace marketing card and got the popularity and now...
Many thanks for posting these statistics and showing the downward trend in fatalities. One thing that stood out for me when clicking through to the government statistics page is the UK's exemplary record on this Vs other European countries, especially the much-vaunted record of The Netherlands, which actually shows twice as many fatalities as the UK per million of the population. The question that arises is therefore: why are the greens and other left-wing parties so keen to adopt an inferior and more dangerous road system when ours is obviously working well? It smacks of a need to regulate people's lives and curtail freedom. We need to stop these idiotic Dutch roundabouts and segregated cycling infrastructure, and get people sharing the road in a fair and equal manner, when the statistics show it's safer to do so. (Chart shows road fatalities per million population)
That's where the convertible aspect comes in. I've got a gravel bike but the canal I sometimes commute on has roots under the tarmac and barriers. The mtb with 'drops' is more comfortable for this and fits through the barriers. If I want to do something more technical I can put the flat bars on.
51 thoughts on ““A load of tosh”: Cyclists’ reaction as latest person ordered to pay eye-watering fine for riding bicycle through town centre; Tory candidate’s questionable LTN claim; Remco cools criticism of ex-teammate; Froome crash update + more on the live blog”
Susan Hall… please don’t
Susan Hall… please don’t give this person the oxygen of
publicity. She is not suitable to hold any level of public office, let alone Mayor of London.
She’s as truth averse as the
She’s as truth averse as the previous Tory candidate for the Mayor of London, not to mention the last Tory Mayor of London, the same one who spaffed £42 million of public money up the wall for a useless bridge that nobody wanted and was never built and who then, over-promoted beyond his ability as PM, went on to break the country economically and politically.
C’mon, she is still
C’mon, she is still traumatised from being robbed on the Tube !
And from being taunted by Nick Ferrari
Hirsute wrote:
That was mentioned in the Grauniad article I linked to earlier. She went on radio or something saying how London was so awful now and she’d had her bag stolen on the Tube, and the next day someone handed it in because they’d found it abandoned on a platform. Not actually stolen.
Aero helmet, there – is that
Aero helmet, there – is that a time trial?
Low high traffic
Lowhigh traffic neighbourhoods block ambulances from getting where they need to be.Northerner here and isn’t it
Northerner here and isn’t it just like a Tory to be absolutely full of it ?. Because they have nothing to actually campaign on without sounding like complete hypocrites…. So back to basic causing hated on the roads wouldn’t mind betting this peroxide blonde (can’t get any vainer than that type right?) lives in a gated community etc just like how our PMs wife refuses to stay at number 10 because she’s have to stop working…. hilarious thing about it is the PM has the gaul to say workers in this country are lazy while profiting from his wife’s business cause he has no “real world” quals have you seen the tit handles a hammer? He still doesn’t give an F while they keep moving the voting goal posts… He’s already referred to moving elections back another two years!
Born_peddling wrote:
I live in the Forest of Dean (just been for a ride in the glorious spring sunshine) and my MP is Mark Harper, who is attacking the Green Party for raising the price of council owned car parking: because he’s got nothing else, quite sad really. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=800310061908432&set=a.360841945855248
Meanwhile, in other news, locals have taken to calling potholes “Harpers”.
meanwhile in the home
meanwhile in the home counties, tory MPs go full on in championing global warming favourable policies, cheaper council car parks looks like small change.
https://www.stevebakerwatch.com/
“global warming policy foundation” is presumably in favour of policies which achieve global warming, as opposed to his involvement in the european research group, which certainly did zero research into Europe whatsoever.
Fwiw for balance, the current
Fwiw for balance, the current London Mayor and Labour candidate for this year’s election stated on his LBC radio show last Thursday in response to a listeners question about LTNs where reportedly one London bus took 121 minutes to travel 2.9miles across Streatham “The LTN in Streatham is causing huge problems” though he also stated Streatham Wells “is a council LTN not my LTN”.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/transport-for-london-lambeth-low-traffic-neighbourhood-streatham-sadiq-khan-bus-b1142383.html
Nobody asked the London ambulance service if ambulances were impacted around the Streatham LTN,but I’d be surprised if they weren’t given the congestion that it is reportedly causing.
Yes, he has agreed that there
Yes, he has agreed that there are problems with the Streatham LTN and TfL, as an interested party as they are responsible for the A23 which is the road that has primarily suffered from the increased congestion, have been working with the local council to iron out the problems and ensure the scheme can remain in place without having quite such a deleterious impact on surrounding roads. Rather a different approach to Ms Hall’s “We must rip them all out” strategy.
the solution to Strethams LTN
the solution to Strethams LTN might well be rip it out, then where would the policy be ?
If we’re going to criticise a candidate for election for their stance on LTNs, it’s best to get the whole picture from all sides, don’t you agree ?
stonojnr wrote:
What if *situation I have no proof for* in *area that’s not in question* was happening eh?? What then?? Checkmate lefties.
Lol that reminds me of a Zapp
Lol that reminds me of a Zapp Brannigan joke
who cares which side of politics you’re on, real world is more complex than “lefties right” or “tories bad”, or LTNs always work and you’re an idiot to be laughed at if you say otherwise.
Understand that much, and you wont be left using Maslow’s hammer as the tool for everything.
stonojnr wrote:
Where would what policy be? Khan doesn’t have a policy on LTNs because they are not under his control, I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make. Susan Hall is saying that she wants to “rip out” all LTNs (despite the fact that many of them have been running for decades without anyone making a fuss, and also despite the fact that if she became mayor (which, thank God, is as likely as Lord Lucan winning the next Derby aboard Shergar) she would have no authrity to remove the LTNs whatsoever. Khan has said that he recognises that one LTN may need changes and will work with the local council to effect that. I live relatively close to the Streatham LTN, by the way, and it doesn’t need “ripping out”, it just needs a few changes. Of course what would make it really good would be if healthy able-bodied people could stop driving 3/4 of a mile to the supermarket, but apparently that is an impossible dream.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Where would what policy be? Khan doesn’t have a policy on LTNs because they are not under his control …— stonojnr
Possibly pedantry but surely it’s a bit more nuanced – e.g. he presumably can’t say “fix this one so” but … he has been overseeing TfL expanding the cycle ways but been frustrated (indeed – getting a bit chippy with Ken and Chelsey over their intransigence / reversing things after having taken the cash).
If mayors had zero influence over the details the Conservative candidate’s pledge to rip these out would be even more risible than it is.
Not being from London it was a long time before I realised the place is basically a bunch of different large towns / small cities stuck together. Who’d want to try to herd those cats?
Susan Hall? This Susan Hall?
Susan Hall? This Susan Hall? – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/15/conservative-london-mayor-candidate-susan-hall-liked-tweets-praising-enoch-powell
brooksby wrote:
I thought this bit from that article was notable:
Deleting comments/tweets is not the sign of someone with integrity, but someone who realises that they’ve shown too much of what kind of person they are.
Tories – the party of wealthy, old white bigots
Where does the tory party
Where does the tory party find these people? Its like they are holding a competition to be the worst person alive.
Patrick9-32 wrote:
And just when you think they’ve hit rock bottom, they manage to keep digging. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve thought “Surely they can’t get any worse.” but they always find a way.
After reading about Susan
After reading about Susan Hall I am strongly suspecting that the Tories don’t actually want to win the Mayoral election, why else would they choose someone so inept :-/
Unfortunately the tories
Unfortunately the tories could stick a blue ribbon on a literal pile of shit and it would still be a close race in some constituencies.
Patrick9-32 wrote:
“Welcome to North Somerset” 😀
But their Mammy/ Daddy / etc
But their Mammy/ Daddy / etc voted blue, so they are just keeping up tradition #TurkeysVotingforChristmas :-/
HLaB wrote:
I have suspected this since she was selected: the Tories have attempted to wreck London in an effort to bring down Khan by imposing huge cuts on the police budget, refusing to allow him control of local railways (something they were prepared to give to a Tory Mayor if one had succeeded the blond shitgibbon) and imposing electorally damaging conditions to Covid bailouts such as extending ULEZ and raising the congestion charge and imposing it 24/7. They’ve now realised that Londoners, sensible folk that we are, have seen through this and are set to re-elect Khan by a landslide, so they don’t want to risk any chance of having to take over the disaster they have created with their punitive financial sanctions.
HLaB wrote:
I think the reason they chose Hall was that they made a decision that the national Conservative brand was so toxic, that they wanted someone with no link to the Parliamentary Party. And that was why they didn’t go with the obvious front runner, Paul Scully (co-incidentally, my MP). And then Hall was pretty much the only choice they had. Scully has been pretty scathing about the decision and, to be fair, in a way which doesn’t just come across as sour grapes. (I’m not a great fan on his, but he is clearly whole levels more competent that Hall.)
Patrick9-32 wrote:
You need to be stupid and/or evil to be a rightwinger.
It’s worth noting re Susan
It’s worth noting re Susan Hall (#stupiderwithsusan), as I did on Twitter, that “Hazel” is not an emergency services worker, she is a mental health transport assistant, in other words someone who sits in the back of an ordinary, not emergency, transport ambulance and looks after patients with severe MH difficulties. A tremendously worthwhile and praiseworthy job, but one that has absolutely nothing to do with emergency response. Clearly Hall couldn’t find a single one of London’s 5,700 frontline emergency ambulance staff to appear to support her nonsense on LTNs so had to fall back on someone who works in patient transport. It’s also worth noting that the Mayor of London has no control over traffic schemes apart from those on TfL roads, i.e. a small handful of major arterial routes, so her promises to remove LTNs are entirely worthless, it’s down to the borough councils. However, she doesn’t know what a copper’s salary is, how much a bus fare is or who owns Hammersmith Bridge, so I suppose it’s a bit much to expect her to know the actual remit of the office for which she is running.
ETA It’s worth noting also that her claim that she wants to remove LTNs because she’s listening to Londoners and it’s what we want is a complete lie, the last poll of which I am aware on the matter (July 2023) found that 58% of Londoners support LTNs with only 17% opposed, hardly a surprising finding for a city in which 50% of households have no access to a motor vehicle.
At least Shaun (Baron Bailey
At least Shaun (Baron Bailey of Paddington…) had some presence and a fairly good backstory. With Susan Hall they seem not even ro be trying…
ktache wrote:
He blew it when those pictures of his office Xmas party in 2020 surfaced…
(Althought it didn’t stop him getting a knighthood).
brooksby wrote:
Didn’t they emerge after the election? And he got a peerage!
Where can I buy this NEW BIKE
Where can I buy this NEW BIKE KLAXON? Does it make a lot of noise?
Police drop charges
Police drop charges
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/dave-clifton-prosecution-cyclist-range-rover-met-police-apology-b1143446.html
Please shed a tear for the poor cycle haters who thought that it would be the end of filming bad drivers.
Hirsute wrote:
That’s just asking for a complaint to be made. I doubt if a defamation case would get anywhere for the Met Police suggesting that the cyclist was breaking the law.
I don’t understand why the driver wasn’t fined for mobile phone use – must have been a friend of the police officer.
While I’m glad that the
I’m glad that the nonsense of going after the cyclist who did nothing wrong has ended.
Albeit it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
My own prediction was wrong: that the case would actually get to court and then get thrown out with the Met police being told “Don’t waste our time.”.
https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-who-reported-driver-using-phone-face-prosecution-306957
I hope the cyclist’s complaint against the Met police has real consequences and leads to better/correct outcomes.
A while ago I put in a formal complaint against one of the staff who reviews evidence.
He seemed to have quite a high rate of “no further action” or simply issuing warning letters to drivers, compared to other Met staff members who would have NIPed similar/identical incidents.
I suggested, in my complaint, that the bad apple was simply doing it to improve his own stats on closing cases and that management do a thorough review of his caseload and outcomes to identify anomalies.
I later learned that the individual is no longer in that team.
Though of course, they would never admit that it was because of any findings that might agree with my suspicions.
He did plenty wrong. It just
He did plenty wrong. It just didnt reach the threshold of careless riding.
He rode like a plonker.
Not_so_secret_troll…
Not_so_secret_troll…
Indeed.
Indeed.
If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck… 😀
The War on Motorists
The War on Motorists continues
Fuel duty frozen again, with the 5p cut in fuel duty on petrol and diesel, due to end later this month, kept for another year
“will cost another £6bn on top of £14bn annual cost of freezes since 2010”
Exactly. Now, what was it
Exactly. Now, what was it all those local councillors were saying/complaining about public money being thrown at cycle lanes?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/06/uk-fuel-duty-cut-regressive-policy-benefits-wealthy-study
.
.
Hirsute wrote:
Probably time to stop describing these fuel duty freezes as “temporary”.
Meanwhile train fares went up again this week. A return ticket to work now costs me £18.50. I reckon if I drove, the fuel cost would be about half that (70 miles, diesel car).
(No subject)
Fuel duty has been frozen for 14 years now. Here’s how rail fares have risen in that time:
2011 6.22%
2012 5.9%
2013 3.9%
2014 2.8%
2015 2.2%
2016 1.1%
2017 2.3%
2018 3.4%
2019 3.1%
2020 2.7%
2021 2.6%
2022 3.8%
2023 5.9%
2024 4.9%
Hirsute wrote:
I bought my car in 2014, at that time fuel was £1.45 a litre (I remember weighing up extra cost of diesel engine over extra cost for buying more litres of petrol) It’s now 1.60. Average annual inflation 0.8%
This right here is the “war on motorists”. The war on motorists is a propoganda story designed to ensure favourable conditions remain, or become even more favourable. It’s working very well.
The bit I’ve never understood
The bit I don’t quite get is we have politicians who stake a claim to be all over the finances and either are for “profit!” (or its cuddly sibling – “bettering yourself”) OR “growth”. (The latter – every party I think?)
…so you’d think they’d understand that if you make something cheaper than other things, or spend more money on it, then people will choose that thing. Just basic economics, innit?
That’s driving relative to other modes.
Yes – there are fixed costs e.g. insurance. However because we’re humans we tend to look at costs per journey e.g. “petrol costs” vs. e.g. train ticket cost. That almost always says “car!” but then in addition everyone’s got a “crap public transport” story.
Presumably “we get the mode (driving) we (lavishly) fund” view of things is not one these folks take. Is it because “we are where we are” or “we must deliver (personal) choice” / “traffic is the lifeblood of the city” / “transport is what enables growth” mantras?
Bryan Adams knows a girl who
Bryan Adams knows a girl who’s only happy when she’s dancing.
I hope he doesn’t find out about Remco, who’s only happy when he’s complaining – it could make a bad song.
You had me at “Susan Hall”.
You had me at “Susan Hall”.
What a disastrous human being.
I did hesitate to post this,
I did hesitate to post this, but I think it’s important to be reminded of how many *&^%tards there are out there and they have the vote.
Who the hell is Carly Johnson
Who the hell is Carly Johnson?
Not really sure what she has
Not really sure what she has done but found this
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/im-40-constantly-mistaken-17-27339919.amp
ktache wrote:
Probably meant Carrie Johnson.